When Park School librarian Laura Amy Schlitz arrived at work yesterday, she was presented with a tiara borrowed from the theater's props department - a fitting tribute for the newly anointed queen of children's literature.
Schlitz, 52, of Baltimore, learned that she had won the 2008 Newbery Medal, given annually for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for the under-18 set.
During an all-school assembly called yesterday afternoon in Schlitz's honor, the entire student body of nearly 900 students stood and cheered for at least 30 seconds. The applause went on and on.
"When I was a child, I wanted to be important," said Schlitz, who has worked at the Park School since 1991 as a librarian and as the chief storyteller. "I never thought I'd win this award. I still can't believe I'd won it. But all the love and loyalty in this room - this is better."
In past weeks, rumors had been rife on several Web sites that Schlitz's Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village would be a contender for either the top prize, or one of the three 2008 Honor Books. Featuring characters such as a youthful beggar, a glassblower's apprentice and a shepherdess, the collection of 22 monologues and dialogues grew out of a Park School lesson plan.
"I was keeping my fingers crossed and hoping against hope that the monologues would be selected as an Honor Book," Schlitz said.
"I knew if they were going to call me, they'd call me very early in the morning. I woke up at 5 a.m. with a stomachache that wouldn't let me go back to sleep.
"When it got to be 6:30 a.m., I figured that it was too late, that I hadn't won. And then the phone rang.
"And I thought, `Please, not a wrong number.'"
It wasn't. After yesterday's announcement by the Newbery Committee, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! had rocketed to No. 17 on Amazon.com's list of top sellers.
In addition, Schlitz fielded interview requests yesterday from newspapers that included the Detroit Free Press and The Washington Post, and was scheduled to appear this morning on NBC's The Today Show.
Other honors, though more local in scope, were no less cherished. During Schlitz's noon-hour session with the second grade, the pupils in Mr. Rollins' class presented her with a poster they'd decorated and autographed in honor of the Newbery award.
"Have a good life!" wrote a boy named Donald.
